1. Field of the Invention
The field relates generally to media diverter systems, and in particular, to a media diverter system for an imaging device that uses a single stepper motor for directing media being fed into the diverter system to a selected one of multiple output destinations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Diverter gates are responsible for diverting media in a paper path system of an image forming device (i.e., printer, scanner, and photocopier) to corresponding output destinations therein. These diverter gates are actuated by prime movers for opening and closing at particular instances during media transport. One example of a prime mover in a diverter system is a solenoid. Often, one solenoid is assigned for each diverter gate in the diverter system for actuating the diverter gate when required. However, the quality of operation of a solenoid degrades in a heated environment, such as that found near a fusing assembly in an imaging device, as compared to other prime movers such as stepper motors and servos.
In an alternative arrangement to having a solenoid as a prime mover, a stepper motor may be used for diverting media sheets to their corresponding output destinations in the imaging device. In contrast to solenoids, stepper motors do not have thermal issues, but as there may be multiple destinations or paths in the imaging device, there may be a need to provide one stepper motor to each path separation, which is costly. Further, positioning a stepper motor at each media path separation would also require additional mounting components, thereby incurring more costs and increasing the size of the media diverter system.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a media diverter system that may be operated using a single stepper motors to provide multiple path separations. It would be further advantageous to make use of the bidirectional flexibility and positional repeatability of a stepper motor.